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Some urban megaprojects are framed as a strategic move to achieve broader economic benefits. Project proponents often claim that adverse socio-environmental effects are mitigated accordingly and that all aspects of sustainability are integrated successfully. Using a case study of the Bali Mandara highway, this study drew upon the politics of scale to investigate multiple frames of these effects and mitigation efforts on various scales (and levels). Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and secondary data sources were collected to explore and examine the variety and mix of the scale frames representing all sustainability aspects. Words and phrases related to scale-related issues were identified and tracked in the development phases (i.e., pre-construction, construction, and usage). The study shows that different stakeholders used specific preferred scale types to frame the effects and mitigation efforts, and these frames evolved throughout the project phases. Our findings substantiate that limited scale choices can occur from a lack of open process, resulting in a limited representation of all scale-related issues affecting the sustainability of the highway project development. This paper adds insights into the use of scale to explore the broad effects of urban megaprojects and calls for more transparent and accountable impact audits.

Some urban megaprojects are framed as a strategic move to achieve broader economic benefits. Project proponents often claim that adverse socio-environmental effects are mitigated accordingly and that all aspects of sustainability are integrated successfully. Using a case study of the Bali Mandara highway, this study drew upon the politics of scale to investigate multiple frames of these effects and mitigation efforts on various scales (and levels). Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and secondary data sources were collected to explore and examine the variety and mix of the scale frames representing all sustainability aspects. Words and phrases related to scale-related issues were identified and tracked in the development phases (i.e., pre-construction, construction, and usage). The study shows that different stakeholders used specific preferred scale types to frame the effects and mitigation efforts, and these frames evolved throughout the project phases. Our findings substantiate that limited scale choices can occur from a lack of open process, resulting in a limited representation of all scale-related issues affecting the sustainability of the highway project development. This paper adds insights into the use of scale to explore the broad effects of urban megaprojects and calls for more transparent and accountable impact audits.

Policy Analysis

Despite rising attention to pathways thinking in multiple domains such as climate adaptation, energy supply planning, and flood risk management, their spatial translation is so far understudied. We set out to study how spatial design based on pathways thinking can help develop more adaptive and sustainable landscapes. Using landscape analysis, field research, and research-through-designing in a case study on climate resilience in Boston (USA), we argue for better understanding of the spatial and design consequences of pathways in general. Our results indicate that pathways can be spatially translated, demanding landscape-informed choices when sequencing different policy actions. We found that spatial designing makes the landscape consequences of pathways transparent and enables policy-makers to replace the input of policy actions with spatial interventions, select pathways according to different underlying design strategies, use the mapped pathways to initiate an iterative research-through-designing process to test and inform different designs, and spatially visualize the pathways and possible sequences of actions. We conclude that policy-makers should be cognizant about the spatial implications of pathways and offer directions to enrich applications of pathways thinking for achieving adaptive and sustainable landscapes.

Adaptive strategies to deal with uncertainty in water management are often collaboratively developed. So far, however, little attention has been paid to the influence of collaboration on handling uncertainty through adaptive planning. In this paper, we study how collaboration has influenced the handling of uncertainty through adaptive planning for water management strategies for the IJsselmeer area in the Netherlands. We show how a fixation on certainty, different perspectives among actors and unclear responsibilities between arenas affect the handling of uncertainty, and found that it is adversely affected by collaboration. The use of adaptive planning challenged current water uses and system functions, creating resistance from actors. We conclude that developing a shared problem perception, creating a common understanding of uncertainties and ensuring a clear demarcation between the water system, its societal functions and water usage, are necessary to make adaptive planning successful in handling uncertainty.

Planning for delta areas happens amid uncertainty, which may influence the location, type and form of interventions such as infrastructure, spatial strategies and design standards. Interventions, however, may fix the spatial configuration for decades, for which insight in the appropriate use of adaptiveness to account for uncertainty is essential. This thesis explores uncertainty and adaptiveness in spatial planning and studies their expression and empirical manifestation in planning approaches, planning tools and planning processes. Uncertainty’s characteristics are used to distill information about the (in)adequacy of specific interventions and are related to three domains of adaptiveness: adaptive management, adaptive capacity and adaptive planning. The thesis shows that while some uncertainties demand interventions aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of planning while anticipating future change, others require a focus on the planning process by the co-construction of knowledge, deliberating about values and increasing the adaptive capacity of actors and institutions.